Mark Zuckerberg's visit gives Nigerian startups much-needed boost

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

In Nairobi, Kenya, Zuckerberg met with entrepreneurs and developers. "It's inspiring to see how engineers here are using mobile money to build businesses and help their community," he said in a Facebook post on September 1.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Zuckerberg has lunch in Nairobi with Joseph Mucheru, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary of Information and Communications. "We talked about internet access and his ambitious plans for connecting everyone in Kenya," Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page alongside the image on September 1.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Mark Zuckerberg and members of his team at Facebook go on safari at Lake Naivasha in Kenya on September 1.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Young impalas graze in the Crescent Island Game Park on Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Hippo's swim in Lake Naivasha.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

A small herd of giraffes on the Kenyan plain on the Crescent Island Game Park.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Zuckerberg and friends watch a giraffe from the safety of safari truck.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

A vervet in the Crescent Island Game Park.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

The Kenyan landscape.

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Photos:Mark Zuckerberg's African tour

Zuckerberg meets Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja, Nigeria, on September 2.

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Story highlights

Zuckerberg causes a stir with surprise visit to Nigeria on Tuesday

Entrepreneurs say it will give country's startup industry a boost

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's visit to Nigeria, his first to sub-Saharan Africa, has put the country's tech businesses firmly in the world's spotlight.

Zuckerberg staged a surprise visit to the country's economic capital Lagos on Tuesday and his first stop was a local innovation center and tech hub in Yaba, an area on the mainland of Lagos known as Nigeria's Silicon Valley.

There was no fanfare amid tight security and some of those working at the Co-Creation Hub, called CcHUB, didn't even know Zuckberg was coming.

He appeared nervous, a little startled even, as he launched into an impromptu speech about why he was there.

He said: "This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. I'll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about the startup ecosystem in Nigeria. The energy here is amazing and I'm excited to learn as much as I can."

Figures released Wednesday show Nigeria has officially dipped into recession as its second quarter GDP fell by more than 2% compared to last year.

However, running a business in the country has always been tough for young entrepreneurs such as Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe, who co-founded the hub Zuckerberg visited in 2011.

Successful startups in Nigeria thrive against the odds of weak infrastructure, anemic power supply and general lack of funding and investment.

Tijani told CNN that Zuckerberg's visit would give Nigeria's fledgling startup scene the shot in the arm it desperately needs.

"By coming here first, he's given a lot of hope to young people here," Tijani said.

He added that entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg were inspiring because his approach to Facebook has never been about making a lot of money.

"It's been about creating something that's going to change the world and obviously if you do that, you are bound to reap the benefit," Tijani said.

Idris Ayodeji Bello, an 'afropreneur' and angel investor from Nigeria, said, "Mark's visit was a much needed external validation of the sweat and immense efforts, mostly unsung, of the young Nigerians who have kept at it. And it was heartwarming to see all the attention his visit got, even from some young people who are rarely excited by much beyond music and entertainment."

Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Nairobi, Kenya – Africa is experiencing increased investment in its tech industries. One contributing factor is the amount of tech hubs in the major urban centers that are sprouting. According to research from GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator in 2016 there were 314 active tech hubs across the continent.

Part of the appeal of tech hubs is that they provide affordable shared office space, fast internet, and access to reliable electricity, something that the continent overall still grapples with. Nairobi Garage in Kenya's capital offers all of these things, and holds tech events, conferences and workshops helping entrepreneurs gain new skills. Also in Nairobi, iHub tech incubator lists more than 150 companies that can trace their origins to ideas sparked there.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Durban, South Africa – Over 50% of tech hubs are in five countries, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria Egypt and Morocco. One of the biggest in South Africa is Durban's SmartXchange, which strives to develop small and medium enterprises, and holds monthly forums where successful business figures offer advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Cape Town, South Africa – Cape Town-based RLabs organizes digital and entrepreneurship bootcamps, and provides an investment of up to $20,000 for every social enterprise developed through their program.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The east Africa nation's capital is home to iceaddis which supports youth-driven private sector initiatives and promotes interaction between techies, entrepreneurs, investors and people from the creative industries.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Lagos, Nigeria – The Co-Creation Hub in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city, holds so-called tech-In series, where software developers and designers try to create new web and mobile based solutions to social challenges affecting the everyday lives of Nigerians over the course of two days.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – Located in Tanzania's largest city, Kinu aims to be an open space where Tanzania's tech community can collaborate, and make a joint effort to find new solutions to social challenges.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Kampala, Uganda – In the heart of Kampala is Hive Colab, a community-run innovation hub which offers co-working space. It's a place where tech entrepreneurs, web and mobile app developers, designers and investors can meet, nurture ideas and get them off the ground.

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Photos:The African tech hubs fostering innovation

Monrovia, Liberia – Recovering from a recent, bloody history of conflict, Liberia is turning its attention to tech. Monrovia's iLab offers free training in information and communications technology and serves as a meet-up space for a range of tech enthusiasts and professionals.

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Like a lot of entrepreneurs on the continent, the founders of CcHUB have been quietly plugging away before catching the attention of one of the world's biggest tech founders.

Zuckerberg singled out their business because of their proven track record in building and incubating startups that tackle the country's myriad social issues such as Lifebank, an app that locates available blood supplies and delivers it to hospitals.

Another entrepreneur who met Zuckerberg was Adebayo Adegbembo, who runs Genii games, a platform to make it easier for kids to learn about African culture both in Nigeria and the diaspora. He said Zuckerberg learned a few words of Yoruba and spoke of his love of languages.

"To have Mark show that kind of interest in us is a huge stamp of approval," Adegbembo said.

Tijani and his business partner had a vision of creating a tech business district and persuaded the government and a local cable provider to install fiber optic cables on their street providing affordable and fast Wi-Fi access to anyone within the hub's vicinity.

When they started there were five tech businesses, now there are 60 and the area attracts an increasing number of entrepreneurs.

During a Q& A streamed live on Facebook on Wednesday, Zuckerberg talked about plans to make the company's tools and apps more affordable for SMEs in the country.

He added that he was proud of recently putting the Hausa language, largely spoken in northern Nigeria, on the platform and revealed plans to expand to other Nigerian languages.

Nigeria is the largest market in Africa for Facebook; 16 million Nigerians using the platform monthly, with 7 million logging onto the site daily: 97% of them on mobile, according to figures from the network.

Zuckerberg has also made no secret of his interest in Nigerian startups and other African tech industries.

In June, he invested millions of dollars in a Lagos-based startup called Andela via the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and in May he launched Free Basics, a partnership with a local telecoms provider, which allows people to browse websites for free, a very appealing prospect in a country where data prices can be prohibitively high.

Although, it is not without controversy as critics have said it violates the central tenets of net neutrality, which stipulate that all Internet content and users should be treated equally. Cherry-picking free content isn't considered fair or right, according to the critics.

But it appears to be more than just the numbers stacking up for Facebook and Zuckerberg. He has said he is in the country to listen and learn and take ideas back to California on how to support businesses across the continent. He's also very interested in the creative partnerships and in exploring where tech and creativity intersect.

While in Lagos, he met with leading figures in Nigeria's Nollywood film industry and talked about how the burgeoning industry could be a huge revenue driver for the country. He said: "One of the things I am most excited about my trip to Lagos is going to check out Nollywood. Nollywood sounds like a national treasure and the ability to produce video content that is moving and emotional transcends boundaries and will help tell stories of the amazing innovation, engineering and culture to the whole world."